1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system and method for monitoring driver behavior and more particularly to a system and method for evaluating driver performance.
2. Description of Related Art
How to monitor driver behavior of a group of motor vehicles (i.e., grading the performance of each driver) is an important issue. Further, good driving habits contribute greatly to road safety, fuel economy and vehicle maintenance.
A great number of driver performance evaluation systems and methods are disclosed. For example, Chinese Patent Application No. 200910206340.9 discloses a system for grading the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle. The system is characterized in that a counter is used to count the driver's braking times and the driver's emergency braking times when driving. Above two counts are used to grade performance of a driver. Chinese Patent Application No. 200980152852.X discloses a system for grading the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle based on fuel economy. The system further discloses different grading criteria for evaluating driver performance based on driving experience of respective drivers.
However, above two patents have the following drawbacks:
Either safety or fuel economy is taken into consideration in the evaluation. Thus, it is limited. Further, focusing on one factor may compromise the other factor, resulting in either poor fuel economy or dangerous driver behavior.
Secondly, the evaluation criteria of each of the evaluation systems disclosed in the two Chinese Patents are not applicable to all drivers.
In addition, an alerting message of each of the evaluation systems disclosed in the two Chinese Patents is shown during driving, but the alerting manner is not desired for drivers.
Moreover, displayed alerting message does not contain constructive information. Thus, it does not help a driver stop bad driving habits.
Thus, the need for improvement still exists.